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The only way any commodity goes up is when someone will pay a higher price for it. Look at the aluminum 300SL gullwing, one of 29 built, that sold in Scottsdale in January. RM Auctions had a pre sale high estimate of 3.5 million. It sold for 4.2 million plus buyer's premium, so 4.65 million. The very next day Barrett Jackson sold a steel bodied gullwing, which had an estimated value of 1.25 million, for 2 million plus buyer's premium or 2.2 million. Every 300SL, gullwing or roadster, that was on the market all suddenly went up by one to two hundred thousand dollars and they are selling. Call it crazy if you like but it benefits all Z8 owners when new highs are paid for our cars. It is a good thing.

P.S. Look at what is happening with art. "The Scream", one of four our five originally made, just brought 120 million! To me, our cars are like art, so therefore they should continue to appreciate.
P.P.S. Be looking on the board soon for a superb silver/red 6,500 mile one owner Alpina. I believe it will be $180,000. Worth every penny.

Agreed, Marty. That's how the creeping of prices goes, and market or not, it just takes a few examples to move the goal posts.

Part of this premium has got to do with the color combo. Both examples are Black/Red, which is probably under 6% of the Alpina run - so, ~30 cars. Buyers seeking exclusivity can do well to go with the Alpina, and for more exclusivity they're interested in the rarity of the color. The fact that they're all 2003s and generally low miles certainly helps.

Honestly, $250k for a reliable exotic beauty with tremendous future value over it's original $150k sticker isn't that shocking to me at all.

Does any one know how many Z8s are still on the road? I suppose we could tally up vehicle registration #s but that would exclude the cars squirreled away on private collections. I am curious if our car after ten plus years has escaped the fate of many high powered exotics. Bought by sports stars/celebrities and others with more money than brains who turned their cars into expensive wads of tin foil. I am guessing there are about 5000 left.

But with the exchange rate of the last few years we have a pretty good guestimate that as many as a 1000 of the 2700 US spec cars have gone back to Europe, so there are around 1700 left in North Americas.

Andrew Macpherson

Expert Z8 Inspections, with full support for both Z8 sale and purchases.

But with the exchange rate of the last few years we have a pretty good guestimate that as many as a 1000 of the 2700 US spec cars have gone back to Europe, so there are around 1700 left in North Americas.

My guess is that the reimportation will slow down dramatically with what's happening with Greece ,Spain ,italy and ultimately the euro.

Yeah but look at the luxury car tax Italy has imposed. You will have to pay taxes every year on the Z8. And they sounded pretty steep to me. It blows me away that a country known for cars will now penalize those owning these cars.... in the long run that can only hurt the country. To me they have food, clothing/ fashion, and automobiles. You want to damage the marketing of one of those pillars of the economy? Its shortsighted to me. If taxes have to be raised then do it but I wouldn't do it like this.

There is a strong sentiment in Italy that the guys driving around in Ferraris are the ones cheating on their taxes.

Singling people out because of what they have is the beginning of a descent down a slippery slope that ends in a very dark place.

How long before nice homes are raided? Ladies wearing diamond rings get arrested for interrogation? Etc. How soon after are people who look different then become suspect because there is strong sentiment against them?????

And yes, if you taxed all the high end car owners of Italy 100% on all their income I suspect you wouldn't dent the problems. Therefore this is a smokescreen designed to divert attention from the problems and point blame in the wrong place. Rather than pointing blame, maybe the country should be trying to figure out how to get out of the mess. And now they have to deal with the tragedy of the earthquakes. 30% of their GDP occurs in the affected regions.

Read an article in the FT or Economist (forget which) along the lines of prices of Ferraris in Italy are falling because everyone is selling to avoid the attention of tax authorities.

If you want to talk about idiotic tax authorities, we can start with the US. Even though I have lived in Switzerland for 14 years, I still have to pay US taxes. Now I can't have a bank account here because of the reporting requirements that the US has imposed on foreign banks with US citizens as clients. It's not worth it for them to have US clients.

Absolutely, and it should start with the Fed. The IRS and income taxes in the USA are all directly traceable to the formation of the Fed.

We are all paying taxes to support the Rockerfeller/Rothschild/Warburg et al banking quagmire that was set up via bribery and corruption in exchange for Woodrow Wilson's political campaign. That really marked the beginning of the end for the USA, since then every dollar issued has been issued from dept payable by us to America's third national bank, the privately held Federal Reserve System. This is the truth of our national debt, and it's fair to say it is the greatest con trick ever perpetrated on the people of any nation.

Andrew Macpherson

Expert Z8 Inspections, with full support for both Z8 sale and purchases.